Calypso Bulbosa
by Lli
Summary: The life and times of Lili Frond. Because there must be more to her than Colfer gives us. Vaguely based off Calypso and Callisto myths, because I like my classics.
1. Chapter 1

A mix of horticulture, vague Racine influences and a lot of Lily Frond, among other things. For Patty. Merry Christmas?

* * *

**Calypso Bulbosa**

'Calypso Orchid: (_Calypso bulbosa_), also known as the 'fairy slipper' or 'Venus's slipper', is a small pink, purple, pinkish-purple, or red flower accented with white lower lip, darker purple spottings, and yellow beard. They come to full bloom in nearly 20 years. It is the only species currently classified in the genus _Calypso_, which takes its name from the Greek signifying _concealment_.

The Calypso Orchid relies on "pollination by deception", as it attracts insects which it does not nourish and which eventually begin to learn not to revisit it. So, although the Calypso orchid's distribution is wide, it is very susceptible to disturbance, and is therefore classified as threatened or endangered in several states, and in Sweden and Finland as well. Also, it is easily disturbed and does not transplant well, owing to its mycorrhizal dependence on specific soil fungi.'

Wikipedia

* * *

Chapter One: Venus's Slipper

Standing the first floor women's washroom of the LEP training academy, Lily wraps a strand of hair around her fingers, looking for split ends. There are none, her hair perfect in all its golden glory. She purses her lips. Sometimes she wants nothing more than a pimple to appear on the end of her pretty nose, so that she can say: look, see, I am no different from the rest of you. But her skin has never been anything but flawless.

She knows she's a joke, she knows she isn't cut out for police work, but she'd seen a niche in need of filling and jumped at it. She doesn't regret it. The LEP had needed a pretty face, she'd needed an excuse to hang around. Match made in Haven.

The only child of a family still accustomed to living royally, despite a millennia of democracy, Lily is used to feeling emotionally dissatisfied. Her parents hadn't shied away from raising their daughter to be a cliché. They had given her pretty clothes and vacations in exotic lands and sent her out to dinners with the handsome sons of Council members. They did not encourage education or personal growth. They expected her to marry well and live out her days spread out on her back in golden sheets. Like her mother, and her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. Women like them, after all, were a dying breed in this modern age. And, as the People's one time sovereign, the Fronds felt the need to preserve tradition.

When she came to them with the decision to join the LEP, they were, understandably, utterly baffled. But, in the habit of pandering to the whims of their daughter, they smiled and agreed to pay her tuition. After all, they said to each other, it'll all come to nothing anyway. Lili in the LEP? She probably just saw a pretty young captain. Give her six months, she'll come round.

They were partly right. She had indeed seen a pretty young captain-to-be, one who was everything Lily was not and had never thought of being.

One Thursday afternoon, Rafe Montane took Lily to coffee at a swanky new café. He ordered for them both without asking her, leaning his elbows on the counter to get closer to the dark, whiplash beautiful elf working cash. Her big hazel eyes took him in, his fancy clothes, his incautious flirting, his drop-dead gorgeous date, and raised one auburn eyebrow, utterly unimpressed.

'One chicory latte with extra soyacream and hazelnut syrup and one no-fat hot carob, frothed.' She looked passed him, to Lily, 'You sure you don't want whipped soyacream on yours? I do it with cinnamon mixed in, it's really to die for.'

'Um,' Lily swallowed, 'ok. That'd be great. Thanks.'

'No problem,' the girl shrugged. Rafe shot Lily a disapproving look.

Later, when they were both nearly done drinking, and Rafe wasn't anywhere near done extolling his long-sightedness in a recent business deal, Lily saw the barista come out for her break. She sat at a table near theirs, and began filling out e-forms over a cup brimming with immense amounts of soyacream. Lily read the first page over Rafe's shoulder.

LEP Training Academy Official Application Form. Family name: Short. First name: Holly. Other: Callisto. Medical Concerns: (this one had already been filled in by the secretariat) Female. Holly tapped the screen, trying to erase this. It wouldn't let her. She frowned.

'And what do you think of _that_?' Rafe asked suddenly.

Lily blinked. 'Oh... fantastic, just awesome,' she fluttered her eyelashes, utterly uninterested. Luckily, this was all he expected or wanted from her. He began to speak again and she watched the fine lines of Holly's muscles move under the fabric of her blouse, wondering if the LEP recruitment office would still be open by the time Rafe let her out of here.

The bathroom door swings open and Holly comes striding in, all self-righteous anger.

'What's the matter?' Lily asks the other woman's reflection as they stand before the mirror. One dark, one light. Day and night. _Perfect together_, thinks Lily, _a timeless classic_.

Silent with fury, Holly sticks her head under a tap and turns on the cold water. When the automatic timer shuts the water off, she lets her head just hang in the sink basin, delicate shoulder blades rising above the curve of her neck like wings about to open. Her own engaged in minute scrutiny of the sink's white porcelain, Holly doesn't see Lily's eyes run across the lines of her body, memorising each dip and twist and turn.

'Rapeseed, that's the matter,' admits Holly at length, giving an utterly unamused snort of laughter. 'He won't let up. How many times do I have to say: No, not interested, buzz off, before he'll get that I really am sincerely and utterly not. Interested.'

Lily gives a wry smile, 'Until you go hoarse. And even then you'll probably have to keep on with sign language.'

Holly chuckles, raising her dripping head from the sink. Her red hair sticks to her skin in curls, as though her head was some inverted exotic flower. The last of the water slips down her face to pool in the uplifted hands of her eyelashes like holy water in the palms of the faithful.

Lily bites her lip.

With the same careless grace that drove so many of their fellow cadets mad, Holly runs her hands along her scalp and shakes out the remaining water. A few drops hit Lily accidentally and she feels them hanging on her cheek bones. She holds her breath, hoping to keep them there.

Wiping the last of the moisture from her face, Holly rolls her shoulders and shakes out her arms. Preparing for battle. She smiles at Lily, the second of five she will ever get. Noticing the water droplets on the other's cheeks, she pulls a face.

'Sorry about that.' Reaching over, Holly brushes them away with her thumb, as though they were tears.

'No problem,' whispers Lily. She's never touched her before. It's worth the loss of the water. For a moment they simply stand there, silent in the aftermath of contact.

'Well, uh,' Holly, realising the unconscious intimacy of the moment, is uncomfortable, 'I'll see you around, yeah?'

'Yeah,' Lily manages a weak smile.

Holly licks her lips, nods absently, and leaves. Methodically, Lily puts down her comb and steps into one of the cubicles. She sits on the toilet seat and watches her fingers shake until she hears the cleaning staff come in.


	2. Chapter 2

On a bit of a role, hurrah! Yet another Root cameo coming up. What a shocker.

* * *

Chapter Two: Pollination by Deception

Two months into training the only things known about Lily Frond are that she is beautiful, rich and not much good. From that it has been inferred that she is easy, spoiled and dumb. True, no one has ever actually proved any of these things, but honestly, what else could she be?

The morning after Holly wipes Lily's cheek clean, Emil Rapeseed swaggers into the men's locker room, looking like the king of the world and bragging about how last night the beautiful Frond came to him nearly _begging_. The other cadets look at each other and smile, because if she came to _Emil_, their chances are even better. Here is our proof, they think, in the very backs of their minds. Easy? Check. Spoiled and dumb? Well, obviously. Next logical step.

And so Lily's reputation is secured.

Even years later, when they have (mostly) all graduated and are working as full-fledged members of the LEP, no one ever mentions the pattern visible in her choice of lovers. The few who noticed it at all think it must be some kind of competitive, spiteful female thing coming into play. What they see, after all, is that when a fellow cadet (and later, officer) begins to hassle Holly Short he will sooner or later find himself gracing the bed of Lily Frond. And that she makes sure to wipe Holly from their minds completely. The only trouble is that once Lily's done with them they can't get _her_ off their minds, and she will refuse to have anything more to do with them.

* * *

Commander Root watches Lily flirt shamelessly with the new Captain in from Atlantis. The sprite, in usual sprite fashion, quickly sized up the female population of the LEP offices and made a bee line for Holly.

_Men always seem to know_, Root thinks to himself, _what other men want but can't get. Lily is drop dead gorgeous but they always go for Holly, knowing that no one else's has had her. A bigger feather for their cap, if not as good looking. But what man can resist bigger?_

He leans on his door frame and puffs away at his cigar, chuckling to himself. Vinyáya comes up beside him, unobtrusively curling her fingers around one of his belt loops.

'The new guy made a pass at Holly, did he?' Vinyáya points with her chin at Lily, whose head is tossed back, gold mane glowing.

'However did you guess?' Root smiles at his lover and, to their knowledge, his only fellow observer in the on-going saga of Lily's unrequited love.

'She really jumped on this one though,' leaning towards him, always seeing how close their bodies can get without being found out. 'Usually she lets them run after Holly for a couple days before moving in.'

'Ah, but this one's a handsome sprite from abroad. They'll be expecting her to go after him right off the bat.'

'Poor girl,' murmurs Vinyáya. In a louder voice she says, 'I have some forms for you to sign Commander, do you have time?'

'Very little,' replies Root brusquely, moving to put out his cigar. 'But I'm not going to put my neck out reading them like this. Please, step into my office.'

Vinyáya smiles a very small and gleeful smile.

Later that day Root calls Lily to his office. He is feeling benevolent and particularly fatherly.

The beautiful little elf stands at attention in front of him, unsure of what is happening.

'Please, sit down,' he waves her into a chair. He can see suspicion pinching the corners of her mouth at this out of character politeness. Poor girl, Vinyáya´s words echo in his head. _Don't worry_, he thinks, _we're not all after your pretty little legs._

'Now,' he clasps his hands on his desk, like a school headmaster,'I have been watching your little game for quite some time, Corporal Frond. And I was wondering how long, exactly, have you been in love with Captain Short?'

Lily's mouth drops open.

'Honestly now. Since the Academy? Before that? Have you ever considered telling her?'

'Be-before, sir' she stutters. 'That's why I joined up. No, never. She thinks I'm an idiot, sir, among other things.'

'Yes, well, you certainly haven't been helping your case with those 'other things', now have you?' Root comments.

'She wouldn't want me anyway. She's straight. And what else can I do for her? I'm keeping her happy the only way I know how, sir.'

Root lights a cigar contemplatively, 'Are you sure?'

'Sure about what, sir?'

'Sure she wouldn't want you.'

Lily gives him a look from under her eyebrows.

'Ok, alright, so she wouldn't. What about other girls? Isn't there anyone else you could...?'

'Anyone else like Holly Short, sir?' Lily asks, dry and disbelieving.

Root sighs. 'Look, Corporal, she may be pretty, smart, and first at many things, but she's not perfect and she's not the be-all-end-all of life under this earth. There are other dwarves in the tunnel, as it were.'

'Not for me, sir,' Lily replies.

Root blows smoke through his nostrils, frustrated. 'Do you have to make this so difficult? I'm trying to be consoling here,' he says, once he's gotten his temper in check.

'Sorry, sir,' Lily smiles, 'I do appreciate it. Especially since I thought... Well, I didn't expect this when you asked for me, sir,' she finishes awkwardly.

'I know what you thought,' Root snorts. 'Don't worry, I am definitely not in need of your services.'

'No, I didn't think you were,' Lily shrugs. 'I was surprised to say the least. Didn't think Vinyáya would let you get up to tricks like that.'

Root blinks.

'Sir,' she adds belatedly, very faintly mocking. Then she laughs, a high and tinkling giggle that makes the fine hairs of new recruits shiver with desire. 'I won't tell if you won't.'

He snorts, 'You'd better not. And now, if you don't mind, would you get out? I have important bureaucracy to lose my eyesight over.'

'Yes sir!' she gives him an impeccable salute and turns, stiff-legged, to march out of the office. He smiles around his cigar.


	3. Chapter 3

Originally, this was a very short story. Then I realised how much backstory I could make up. A whole series worth! I don't think I'll do it all, but here's the first book. A short one today, unfortunately, but oh so quickly updated! (What can I say? Exams are coming, I need something to procrastinate with).

* * *

Chapter Three: Fungi Withdrawal

'Have you heard?' Grub leans over her computer, trying, and failing, to leer. 'Captain Short's been kidnapped!'

Lily puts her latte down on her desk, misses, and ends up with matcha all over herself. Grub leans even further over the computer, trying to get a look down her shirt as she mops herself up. Not being very sly, he slips too and spills her collection of rainbow pens all over the floor.

'For Frond's d'arvitting right foot! Would you back off?' Lily snaps. Grub, shocked to see Lily be anything but utterly docile, backs off as far as he can.

'Not that far! What do you mean 'kidnapped'?' Lily has gotten her clothing under control and is on hands and knees picking up the pens.

'Apparently a-a mudman grabbed her,' Grub stutters, his voice muffled by an office partition. 'She was doing the ritual.'

Lily smacks her head on the underside of her desk. '_D'arvit,' _she whispers viciously, not sure whether she means her head or Holly.

'I'm being sent out to try and rescue her,' Grub puffs out his chest.

'Well, I'd assume so, seeing as you're part of your brother's squad, and he's the best Retrieval has,' Lily replies snippily as she reappears above the desk.

Grub wilts visibly. 'At least I'm _part _of Retrieval,' he rallies, before turning on his heel and mincing away.

Lily rubs her scalp and bites the inside of her cheek until it bleeds. She will not cry. Broken nails, dirty clothes, split ends, these things she could cry over in public. The love of her life? Absolutely not. But then she remembers. Looking down at her front, splotchy with coffee stains, she smiles and bursts into tears.

By lunch everyone knows. Holly kidnapped, Holly held prisoner. Holly Holly Holly.

Then Retrieval comes back in pieces and, had anyone been watching, they would have seen Lily's hands start to shake like a strung out junkie's.

Then Root comes back from his disastrous negotiations and, looking through his haze of cigar smoke and unacknowledged fear, sees Lily's face, her eyes and lips blue as bruises in her terror-white skin.

Holly worth a tonne of gold? People ask each other around the chicory coffee dispenser, voices faintly scoffing.

Lily considers robbing her family's bank vault.

Then Cudgeon takes charge and everyone sees Lily faint at the sight of the troll. _Blondes,_ they mutter.

* * *

Lily, the face of the LEP, is doing video recordings for updates to Foaly's database. After the recent debacle, the LEP has a few new faces to add to their 'armed and dangerous' list.

Now, usually, it's a joy to work with her: one take and you're done. She has, after all, been trained since childhood to flick her hair over one shoulder, smile and speak, perfectly enunciated, in that lovely lilt of hers. But not today. Bryony Spinto, the director, simply does not understand what is wrong. This is the _twentieth_ take of the Artemis Fowl clip, for Frond's sake.

'Lily, please, stop gritting your teeth like that, you look like you've just eaten a swear toad. And where's makeup? She's bone white under all that blush. Someone deal with it! No, no Lily, not like that. For Frond's sake, _smile._'

It was another seventeen before she could say his name without grimacing.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks to Allie Marie for pointing out that Lili's name is spelt with two i's and not a y. My bad!

* * *

Chapter Four: No Man Is an Island

Vinyáya blows smoke from the tip of her gun. Every now and again, it makes her feel better to indulge in a little cliché.

Goblins leer at them from the other side of the barricade, smoke clogs the air and wreckage springs up out of the floor, seemingly from nowhere, making walking treacherous. All in all, her day off has not ended being all she had hoped and dreamed it would be. But what's a girl to do?

Trouble has the officers playing relay with the few guns they have. Half shoot, half stay out of the way, resting or helping to heal their colleagues in the makeshift hospital. Eyeing the line of current shooters, Vinyáya notices an anomaly. A glint of gold at the very end of the line. She frowns, and begins picking her way forward.

'Weren't you one the last shift?' Vinyáya asks Lili as she clambers into the niche the Corporal has dug herself.

'Mm,' Lili replies.

'Shouldn't that mean you've got a break right now?'

'Do you see the Goblins taking breaks?' Lili replies, shooting one of said creatures between the eyes.

Vinyáya blinks. Hadn't she heard that Lili Frond couldn't hit a dwarf's backside? 'No-o,' she replies cautiously.

'Well then,' Lili shrugs.

'I never took you to be the, ah, self-motivated type,' Vinyáya comments.

Irritably, Lili blows her bangs out of her eyes and licks her dusty lips, 'I just needed to keep from thinking, that's all.'

'I don't see how shooting Goblins is going to keep you from thinking about how Goblins may end up taking over Haven,' Vinyáya remarks conversationally.

'Yeah, well, maybe I have other things to think about,' Lili shoots another unlucky Goblin, this time in the stomach.

Vinyáya winces but perseveres, 'Like what?'

Lili sighs, putting down the gun and stretching her aching back muscles. Squatting on the ground like a common foot soldier, she takes a sip of water from Vinyáya's proffered bottle. 'What are you trying not to think about, over there on your end? I notice you haven't been taking breaks either.'

'I'm trying not to think about how certain people could be dead,' Vinyáya admits after a moment, gulping water as though it were something much stronger. 'And wondering how anyone could believe they would betray us.'

'Seems like we've got more in common than just stamina,' comments Lili.

'You don't believe it either?'

'Not for a minute,' Lili reaches for her gun once more, flipping her dirty hair over one slender shoulder. Vinyáya wonders that such fragile beauty can find purchase in so harsh a landscape and bloom no less beautiful than before.

'Since when did you get to be such a good shot?' Vinyáya asks, as she rises to go.

Lili shrugs, adjusting her grip, 'I'm not, I'm just really, really desperate. Like those mothers that fight trolls to save their children.'

'Well, just be careful,' she puts a hand on Lili's head and the young woman looks up at her, wide eyes grey and dim in the dusty light. Vinyáya sighs and thinks how out of place Lili Frond looks in a battle ground, even covered with dirt and grime, with eyes as lifeless as the best of soldiers'. The girl did not belong here and they both knew it. Vinyáya can do nothing but admire her perseverance, as she always has. 'There'll be other things to live for, when all this is over. So try to keep yourself alive until then, alright?' she says.

Hours later, Lili climbs out of her hole, nearly catatonic, tentatively licking blood from her cracked lip. She trips over something in the half-light and, looking down, sees that Vinyáya left her the water bottle and she'd never even noticed.


	5. Chapter 5

And we zip forward in time to book four. A bit more overt angst in the forecast here today. And the title belongs to Racine, from Phedre.

* * *

Chapter Five: Et je vis encore?

Holly is alone in the room. Standing in the doorway, Lili is once again reminded of a flower as she watches Holly's dark head tilt back on her slender neck to better see the screen. It's the live footage of Root's recycling. Lili is in full dress uniform, expected at the ceremony. Instead she is here. She hears Holly's breath hitch in her throat and sees the tears begin.

Sitting down next to her, Lili silently offers a handkerchief. Holly takes it and, after a second of fruitless fighting for composure, breaks down completely. She lets Lily take her in her arms and rock her as she sobs. Blind to everyone and everything, it could have been Sool himself offering her comfort and Holly would have taken it, desperate for even the tiniest kindness. Perfectly aware that she is a cipher in the face of Holly's grief, Lili is happy simply for the chance to hold her so close.

'Th-thanks,' Holly rises at last, leaving Lili's shirt darkened and damp.

Lili shivers in the sudden absence of her warmth. 'Not all. This must be awful for you.'

Holly rubs her eyes, exhausted by her grief. 'Yeah. Yeah, it is,' she whispers, trying out a shaky smile. Fourth of five.

Daring herself, Lili reaches out and smoothes back Holly's sweat-sticky hair. The Captain's lower lip trembles, but she stays upright, clutching the handkerchief in pale knuckles.

'Are you going to be alright?' Lili asks, knowing she should leave, that she is expected elsewhere, but unwilling, unable.

'Yes,' Holly nods in fragile imitation of her usual resolve, 'I'll be fine. Don't worry about me.'

_If only you knew, _thinks Lili, rising to go. As she walks away Lili is thinking of her bed sheets at home, permanently salt stained from all the times she has thought Holly to be dead and found herself alone with no one's blouse to ruin.

* * *

Three people are present to witness Holly Short pack her meagre office supplies into a box. One of them is, obviously, Holly herself, smouldering in silence, her dark eyes intent on her work, refusing to look up. Her mouth a stitched up slit in a face laced tighter than a corset.

The second, Commander Sool, is unabashedly enjoying the proceedings, not bothering to keep the smile off his face. Considering the temperaments and freshly dashed hopes of his two companions, this is maybe not a wise decision.

Last but not least, having given up any pretence of filing, Lili watches the gnome intently, her beautiful face eerily smooth for such feral eyes.

When Holly finally goes, off to begin life as a PI, Lili picks up her filing and moves away, not trusting herself to be alone with the person who sent Holly away. But she isn't quick enough.

'You there, Frond,' Sool smirks, 'go get me a coffee, will you? I'm parched.'

Lili puts her files down very gently on the cabinet. She may do filing, she may do stocking and inventory, maybe even secretarial work, but she is a fully trained LEP official and no one's waitress.

'Yes, sir,' she says.

'I'll be in my office.'

She fetches the coffee and carries it with exaggerated caution to the Commander's office, a place she hasn't entered since Root told her to get a life. She bites her lip, wishing it would be his fire hydrant face she will see when she opens the door.

'You took your time,' Sool doesn't look up from his monitor.

_And you took my life away, _thinks Lili. She feels herself breaking away from reality, her body becoming a tiny, delicate island adrift in a sea of greedy eyes and busy hands. She feels timeless, knowing nothing can touch her here on this spit of land that is her body, not now that Holly is gone away. She wonders if she will simply float on and away forever.

She comes to stand beside Sool, close enough that his sleeve brushes hers. He turns, still not bothering to look at her and reaches to take the cup. She lets the steaming cup brush his hand and fall, burning him through his trousers.

He roars, flying out of his chair.

Lili watches his fury with detachment, wondering if she herself will ever be able to muster that much emotion again.


	6. Chapter 6

And now we'll find out if this is actually going to be a L/H story or not. Oh the suspense!

* * *

Chapter Six: Ursa Major, As Seen From Ogygia

Deep in the heart of the Tara LEP bunker, Holly sits on a bed and fumes. This is a delicate mission, this is lives hanging in the balance, this is _Artemis'_ life hanging in the balance, and they gave the job to _Lili Frond?_ Holly tells herself she's angry and sits on her hands so that she can't see her fingers shake with terror.

When the LEP finally tracked down Opal Koboi, arrested her and ransacked her laboratories, the scientific experiments they discovered were nearly all uniformly atrocious. But, among them, there was a project called Zeus which showed potential. It allowed for temporary but extreme changes to be made to one's DNA makeup. For a period of 36 hours, one could become, say, a pigmy marmoset, or a wombat, or, even, Artemis Fowl II.

Which begs the question, why Artemis, of all people?

Years have passed since the lemur incident and Artemis has become a bit of a consultant to hire for Vinyáya. He refused, when originally approached, to work for the LEP, but for the Commander of Section 8, he was willing to make an exception. Vinyáya knows full well it´s only because she´s a friend of Holly´s, but has absolutely no qualms exploiting the boy's love. Holly maintains that it's because he likes Vinyáya and has been maltreated by LEP officials one too many times. Artemis himself refuses to comment.

This time however, Vinyáya is using him for more than just consultation, and with the plan he's concocted, she'll needs him to be in two places at once. Which is where Opal's projects comes in.

Butler, now truly old, was silent with displeasure and worry. Holly, covering for them both, was vociferous in her disproof. It would be _dangerous._ Artemis laughed, thinking the ploy wonderful in its absurdity. Vinyáya remained firm, saying that Lili was nothing if not very charming. Which is exactly what they needed Artemis to be.

Holly then made several deprecating remarks about Artemis' actual abilities to be charming and he made several equally biting right back. Vinyáya rolled her eyes.

Lili looked from Holly to Artemis, finally recognising a lover that she would never be able to lead astray. She felt the water rise around her island, floating her further and further from reality. She wondered how long she would continue to let life pass her by, simply waiting for it to be done and leave her in peace. But she took the needle, and Artemis' spare suit, and did what Vinyáya asked, her beautiful head bowed under Holly´s furious glare.

Vinyáya put a hand on Holly's arm and told her, sharply, not to take out her insecurities on Lily. Holly snapped something defensive and spiteful to cover her fear. Vinyáya only raised an eyebrow until Holly's head fell into her hands and she sighed an apology. The older woman put an arm around the younger and held her, for she understood how the mind lost track of itself, so knotted up with desire and repression and terror for that untouched lover's life.

And so Holly sits on her bed and waits for news. Her room is small and there are no windows, obviously. She should have stayed in the control room, she thinks, to watch the live feed. But she couldn't, all those elves and sprites running around, watching her out of the corner of her eye, seeing exposed what she has kept hidden for so long.

With a groan she flops backwards on the bed. They should be done by now. It should be over. Why weren't they back yet? She closes her eyes and, at long last, gives herself up. _Just get out alive and I'll take back everything I ever said. Just come back and you can have me, I promise. Please, just come back to me._

With impeccable timing, her door opens without a knock. He closes it behind him, quietly locking it as he stands before her, silent.

'Artemis,' the name comes out in a gasp, as she nearly drowns in her relief. 'Did it... did everything go as planned?'

'More or less,' he replies.

'As in, you lost a limb more or less?' Holly's eyes narrow.

'No, no, as in I didn't quite have the inflection I wanted when I replied to his questions.'

'Oh for Frond's – don't make me worry like that!' She takes a deep breath and approaches him, her hands taking hold of his shirt front. She can feel his breath coming quicker as he looks down at her, mismatched eyes bright under his dark hair. 'Did Lili get her lines right? I hope she didn't d'Arvit it all up,' Holly murmurs, Lili's wellbeing the last thing on her mind, as she raises herself up on tip toes.

'No, she did an excellent job,' he replies, closing the distance after so many, many years. This is all the self-congratulation Lili allows herself as she takes Holly in these strange arms. _I'm sorry,_ she thinks as she undoes zippers and catches, _I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But it won't hurt anyone, not really, in the long run. And I've loved you for so long..._

But she can't do it. Lying there with Holly under her, fingers working on the many buttons of Artemis' dress shirt, Lily simply can't do it. She takes Holly's hands and holds them away. Big, questioning eyes look up and something breaks inside her, its piece falling hot and sharp through her lungs, into her stomach. She kisses the fingers she holds.

'I have to finish something with Vinyáya,' she murmurs. 'Will... would you come later?' It isn't hard to make his voice nervous, like she knows it would be.

'Yes,' says Holly, kissing her.

_D'arvit,_ thinks Lili as she takes Holly's face in Artemis' hands.

Lili leaves the room minutes later, straightening her clothes. Looking up from adjusting her tie, she nearly walks right into Artemis. He raises an eyebrow, surprised at her presence, both knowing who is the only person sleeping in this hall.

'Go back to your room,' Lili snaps at him. 'Go back and don't leave it. She'll come to you. And if you mess this up, I'll kill you.'

Artemis blinks, 'Pardon? Were you just – Did you...?'

'I left her,' Lili replies, her voice, which is his, breaks, 'I let her go.' And she runs from him.

Alone in the hall, Artemis stares after her in amazement.


	7. Chapter 7

So, I think a lot of people thought that last chapter was the end, however, I really wanted to give Lili at the beginning of a happy ending after all I'd put her through. I played around a bit and originally Trouble was going to be the man of the hour but then, sort of of its own accord, something else came up. I think this may be a first in the world of AF pairings, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully I've given it enough back story that it works out. At any rate, this really is the end, and I hope you've liked it.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Full Bloom

Later, back in her own body, Lili nurses instant chicory coffee in an empty cafeteria.

Trouble sits down beside her and, propping his elbows on the table, lets his head fall into his hands. He looks exactly how Lili feels.

'You saw her go,' she says matter of factly. 'Hurts, doesn't it?'

Trouble looks at her, one eye peering through strong brown fingers, 'How do you know that?'

'How do I know that she chose him, of all people, or how do I know that it hurts?'

Trouble raises his head, considering. 'Both,' he replies.

'I sent her to him, because I couldn't go through with my original plan, which I think makes it pretty clear why I know it hurts.'

'With your original-' Trouble blinks. 'She got you too, eh?'

'She had me before she had any of you,' replies Lili, quite calmly. All sensation has left her. Her island has floated out of sight of the mainland and she is utterly alone at sea. 'Why the d'Arvit would I stay in the LEP otherwise? I could be the pampered wife of a millionaire right now, instead of being considered a useless bimbo and a whore besides,' she smiles at his amazement. 'But then, how else would I be able to see her? It's not like we move in the same social circles, after all.'

Trouble concedes her point with a slow nod of his head, his mind shuffling things into place. 'Then... all those guys... they were for her sake?' he says at last. 'But that's awful. So many... and you didn't care for any of them?'

'Not really,' Lili shrugs. 'But I'm not the first to give my body in return for somebody else's happiness. And it wasn't so bad, some of them were even pretty good. For guys. Besides, I was already used to it. And let's face it, Holly's a way better reason than my parents' antiquated sense of filial duty.'

Trouble remembers the first time he met Lili, two decades before. She had been in attendance at one of his Uncle Fen's corporate bashes, attached creeper-like to the arm of some young CEO, and introduced to him, not without laughter, as one of his class-mates to be. 'Do you not like us at all, then?' he asks. 'Guys, I mean?'

'Why? You interested?' she raises an eyebrow over her coffee.

'More than I ever have been, though that's not saying much. No offense, or anything.'

She laughs, 'None taken. Honestly, that may be the nicest thing a man has ever said to me. Definitely the most truthful at any rate. And that always makes words worth more, doesn't it?'

Trouble laughs again, truthfully liking Lili Frond for the first time in their twenty year acquaintance. He wraps an arm around her delicate shoulders, hugging her to his side; her first taste of innocent camaraderie. 'I don't know if I would have been able to leave her, if it had been me,' he admits.

'Why do you think Vinyáya chose me?' Lili responds.

'Vinyáya knows about you?'

Lili shrugs, 'Root knew, so it stands to reason Vinyáya does as well.'

Trouble nods. He may not have figured Lili out, but he had understood Root.

'Besides, every now and again she...' Lili thought for a moment, 'well, she says things that are a bit too... appropriate, you know?

'Yeah.'

They sit for a while in silent companionship, arms around one another. He rests his head on her shoulder and she runs her fingers through his soft dark hair. Warm and brown, so different from the cold silky black that had been hers for a few hours. It was hair she could see herself growing fond of, one day, maybe. _It would be nice, _she thinks,_ to be fond of someone, and for them to be fond of me_. Kissing the top of his head like a mother, Lili gives him one last squeeze, before standing to go.

He looks up at her, his eyes gentle and undemanding. Then he smirks slightly. 'If you ever change your mind about us Lili, may I just say that misery does love company.'

She rolls her eyes, 'I think I've had enough of men to last me the rest of my life, Commander. But,' she bites her lip, unsure of how to go about friendship, 'I'd love to just go for coffee one day.'

Trouble nods, his smirk becoming a wide, laughing smile. 'What about board games? How do you feel about them?' he asks.

'I adore them,' she smiles too.

'Atta girl, Corporal,' he tucks her hair behind one pointed ear.

'Good night, Commander,' she says.

''Night, Frond,' he returns.

* * *

Lili sits in bed with the light on, not sleeping and not reading and not really thinking. There is a knock at her door. Frowning, she pads across the floor.

'Hello,' Vinyáya smiles.

'Wing Commander,' Lili's eyes widen, 'er, come in?'

'Thank you.'

Vinyáya ignores the solitary chair and sits on Lili's bed, back leaning against the wall.

For a very long time, Vinyáya loved a man but pretended not to. She had hated that. That was some years ago now, however, and since his death she finds that she cares less and less about things that once seemed important. If she could do it again, she would kiss him in the hall every day and chatter away about his (many) quirks in the cafeterias. But maybe she could do that this time.

'Can I get you anything, Wing Commander? Did I forget something in my report?' Lili puts a bit of a simper in her voice, wearing her bimbo persona like Kevlar.

'Don't,' says Vinyáya.

'...pardon?'

'Don't act like that. We both know you're not as stupid as you look.'

'Gee, thanks,' Lili slaps a hand over her mouth, but the words are out too quickly.

Vinyáya grins, resettling herself on the bed. Lili stands before her, unsure of what to do.

'Sit down, Frond. Stop being so awkward,' Vinyáya reaches out a hand and Lili takes it, clambering onto the blankets beside her.

'It was very good of you,' Vinyáya begins, 'to let her go.'

'You're the second person to say that. I wish you wouldn't. I don't feel good, only not quite like a rapist.'

Vinyáya nods, 'Still, I'm proud of you. Not just for that, for the job as well. You played him perfectly.'

'Thank you. Though I think my best portrayal may have been after the fact,' Lili smiles wryly.

'I don't doubt it,' Vinyáya responds. 'Did she really believe you were...?'

Lili nods.

The older elf looks down at her lap where they are still holding hands. 'Lili,' she looks up again, 'I know that Holly's taken up your life for most of the past twenty years but... have you ever considered moving on?'

'Root once asked me the same thing,' Lili replies.

'He was a very smart man, under that ridiculous complexion,' Vinyáya smiles fondly.

'Yes,' Lili concedes, 'he was. But I haven't. To answer your question. And now I feel empty, because there's no hiding her from her own love, is there? I don't think I'll ever feel full again, not really,' Lili rambles a little, in her sadness.

'It feels that way now, but it won't last.'

'Have you found someone to replace Root?' Lily, bristling at being patronised, means to be cruel.

Vinyáya shakes her head placidly. 'No, not replace. I could never replace him. But I have found someone I think I might learn to love just as well,' quite cool and calm, she looks Lili in the eye.

Lili opens her mouth to speak then pauses, eyes widening. 'Do you... me?' she ends in a whisper, shocked.

The other woman shrugs, 'If you're interested. I know it's a bit soon, and that I am much older, and that I'm not her, but... but I feel that you have lived too long alone with yourself and that you should know I care. Everyone needs a little love in return, after all. We aren't made to be martyrs.'

Lili licks her lips. 'I'm going to be broken for a while yet,' she says finally.

Vinyáya nods, 'I know.'

'And it is very soon.'

'Yes. But you've known it was hopeless since the beginning, so what is soon, really?'

'Did you give me the job because you thought I'd have a go at Holly?' Lili asks abruptly, the thought just occurring to her.

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Because I thought you deserved a little happiness. Because I thought you would sleep with her and then, after, it would be the end. I thought that maybe you could learn to want someone else if you had finished your business with Holly. It was selfish really.'

Lili laughs, 'Selfish to want someone you care for to find solace in someone else?'

'The end negates the means, I believe,' Vinyáya smiles wryly.

'Maybe, maybe not,' Lili contemplates the other woman's face. 'Aren't you worried about what people would say if you and I got together?'

'No. I've already wasted one relationship that way. I'm too old to do it again.'

Lily nods. Vinyáya holds her breath.

Tentatively, Lily begins to smile. 'I think that that would be...' she whispers, 'I think... yes.'

'How diplomatic of you not to bring up the age difference,' Vinyáya laughs.

'Compared to all our other baggage, I don't really give a troll's arse about it, honestly. Besides, you certainly don't look old,' Lily runs her thumb along the other's jaw, watching those sharp dark eyes watch her. She remembers Vinyáya coming to comfort her amongst the wreckage of the LEP headquarters and she thinks_ I could love this woman. And it could be nice, to love someone, and for them to love me. _

Vinyáya kisses her suddenly, interrupting her thoughts, both hands buried deep in Lily's bright hair, no longer able to keep away. For the first time in her life, Lily smiles to feel the desire she causes tsunami through a lover's body. And deep in her stomach, where everything is dark and empty and cold, she feels something pushing its way through the heaviness of loss. Ever so slowly delicate roots reach down into the mainland of the living and tiny, fragile leaves open, facing upwards towards a new warmth.

The End


End file.
